This Caboose not at the Tail End of its Existence
Couple turns old Sturgeon Bay train car into second home.
One might say that Jim and Connie Lennert’s Door County summer home is on the right track.
The couple repurposed a century-old caboose into their second home. The caboose sits on one-and-a-half wooded acres in Egg Harbor. Also on their property is a recently constructed two-story home that resembles a depot.
“It’s like living the dream. My fascination with railroading began with a caboose ride with my dad when I was six years old,” said Jim, a collector of all things caboose —models, wall art, signage, ornaments, even caboose mugs and baby booties.
“And what we feel we are doing is preserving something for history,” he continued.
Jim was an educator for 39 years, teaching geography as well as students in junior college, high school and elementary school. Connie taught first-graders for 25 years. The couple has been traveling to Door County from Illinois since 1979. During a stay on the Peninsula in summer, 1997, they spotted the caboose on Third Avenue in Sturgeon Bay, where they met the owner who told them it was for sale.
As the saying goes, there is a buyer for everything. Jim was so touched by the memory of riding in a caboose with his late father (a brakeman on the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway) that he always wanted to buy one. Connie, who is drawn to the woods in Door County, agreed that the caboose could be the summer home they always wanted here as well as an enchanting place to entertain their children and grandchildren.
“It is fun when the grandkids are here. They don’t want to stop. They walk to the water, make s’mores on the campfire. We just go from one thing to another. But it is crowded,” she said.
Indeed, the living spaces are intimate. The caboose has about 200 square feet of living space. The tall and narrow two-story home offers up about 250 square feet. The Lennerts’ idea was to renovate and build green.
“We don’t landscape or cut the grass. It is left totally natural. And we have a very small house with very minimal impact on the environment. And we like that idea,” Jim said.
The caboose’s interior renovation was done by PortSide Builders, Inc. beginning in spring 1998, and construction of the two-story home was by Forest Builders in 2002.
The caboose has a small kitchen, dining area, bunk beds and a bathroom. Original wood walls and the floor got fresh coats of white and gray paint, respectively. The rear of the caboose is outfitted with original furnishings including horse-hair covered benches and a cupola, where trainmen sat and looked out at the train cars and beyond.
The exterior got a new roof and wood exterior. The final touch was when the caboose was painted red and re-lettered with the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway (EJ&E) logo and renumbered to 213 in honor of Jim’s childhood home at 213 Henderson Avenue in Joliet, Illinois.
“There are only 700 to 800 wooden cabooses in the country that are privately owned. They are getting truly rare,” Jim said.
The Lennerts shared more about the caboose (which celebrates its 100th birthday in summer 2012), their intimate two-story home and their expansive caboose collection.
Q & A
Q. How did you get the idea for a caboose as a summer home?
Jim: “I’ve been interested in the railroad. My family has been into it.
“We always had an idea that we would try to make a summer house out of a caboose. We tried to make it work in Galena, Illinois, and we could not get a caboose on the property. Nothing worked.
“Here, everything came together when we talked to the caboose’s former owners.
“They helped get the caboose to this wooded secluded lot and arranged for transportation over the 10 miles. They needed a crane to move the caboose. And they put it on a track. PortSide Builders put a concrete foundation under the track. Tracks were put in position as well as the caboose. So, it’s stable.”
Q. What was important to you in the caboose renovation?
Connie: “Two of my specifications were that it had to be red, because I taught first grade for 25 years and recall the “Little Red Caboose” (a children’s book). And I wanted to have a wooded property to put the caboose on. I like coming up here because of the woods.
Jim: “The priority was to make it as comfortable as possible and to have everything that you have in a home but on a smaller scale. We have a water heater, water softener, water pump. We got everything we wanted.
Connie: “Jim wanted to leave the back half of the caboose original and historical. And we also wanted to have all the conveniences that you have at home and that you need: a place to sleep, eat, a shower and toilet.
“That was how it was designed. But you still had to have a walking path. You need to get from one end to another.
Q. What’s it like living in a caboose?
Jim: “When we walk down the hallway we each turn sideways. It is part of the process. It is amazing living in this small area. It is 26 feet-by-8 feet wide, and the hallway is only three feet wide. We have adapted to it. You do what you have to do.”Q. Tell me about the history of this caboose.
Jim: “The caboose was originally painted yellow (Lake Superior and Ishpeming 22) and repainted red and relettered to ‘Ahnapee and Western.’ We knew that the caboose had been at the Sturgeon Bay railroad station for many years.”
Connie: “When the caboose was in Sturgeon Bay it was used as a store or shop and later as a place for kids to go and see Santa Claus. There was carpeting on the floor.”
Q. What do you recall about the caboose ride with your dad?
Jim: “I remember everyone else being bigger than me and stepping up in the caboose and getting shaken by the caboose. It was a small run, and one of the things my dad did with me that I never forgot.”
Q. Why did you design and construct the two-story cottage that resembles a depot?
Jim: “To create more storage and sleeping space. In 2002 we started construction of the cottage with a screened-in porch and a second story sun deck. It complements the caboose and looks a bit like a railroad station with finials piercing the roof. The building has an upstairs bedroom and a downstairs living room and storage area.”
Connie: “He started out saying, ‘It would be a storage shed,’ and the next thing I knew we had a cottage.”
Q. And it’s certainly a place to house many pieces in your vast caboose collection.
Jim: “It is kind of like a caboose museum. I have never seen another collection like it. I have about 125 caboose models. Most go back to the 50s, 60s and 70s. (Brands include) Lionel, Atlas, Model Power and Walthers, a Wisconsin Company.
“When I go to train and memorabilia shows, I look for a caboose model I don’t have from a line I don’t have.”
Q. Anything else to share about your caboose summer home?
Jim: “We want people to know that the caboose is safe, renovated and good for another 100 years. It really is.”
